The present invention relates to an information recording medium such as a DVD (Digital Video Disk)-RAM (Random Access Memory) for recording predetermined information.
The present invention also relates to an information recording method for recording information on an information recording medium such as a DVD-RAM for recording predetermined information.
The present invention further relates to an information playback method for playing back information recorded on an information recording medium such as a DVD-RAM for recording predetermined information.
In recent years, systems for playing back the contents of optical discs that record video data (moving pictures), audio data, and the like have been developed, and have prevailed for the purpose of playing back movie software titles, karaoke data, and the like as in LDs (laser discs), video CDs (video compact discs), and the like. Information about recording contents such as titles is generally printed on the surfaces of such optical discs. Further, information about recording contents such as titles is generally added to the packages of these optical discs. This allows the user to obtain the recording contents of an optical disc without playing back the optical disc.
DVD standards that use MPEG2 (moving picture expert group) international standards, and also use an audio compression scheme such as AC-3 (digital audio compression), or the like, have been proposed. The DVD standards include read-only DVD video (or DVD-ROM), write-once DVD-R, and recordable/readable DVD-RW (or DVD-RAM).
The DVD video (DVD-ROM) standards support MPEG2 as a moving picture compression scheme, and AC-3 audio and MPEG audio in addition to linear PCM as audio recording schemes in accordance with the MPEG2 system layer. Furthermore, the DVD video standards are configured by adding sub-picture data obtained by runlength-compressing bitmap data for superimposed dialogs, and presentation control data (navigation data) for fastforward, rewind, data search, and the like. The standards also support the UDF Bridge format (a hybrid of UDF and ISO9660) to allow computers to read data.
An optical disc currently used in DVD video (DVD-ROM) is a single-sided, single-layered 12 cm disc having a storage amount around 4.7 GB (gigabytes). A single-sided, two-layered disc has a storage amount around 9.5 GB, and a double-sided, two-layered disc is capable of recording a large amount of data around 18 GB (when a laser of a wavelength of 650 nm is used for reading).
An optical disc currently used in DVD-RW (DVD-RAM) is a 12 cm disc, and has a storage amount of 2.6 GB (gigabytes) on one surface, i.e., 5.2 GB on the two surfaces. The currently available DVD-RAM optical disc has a smaller storage amount than that of a DVD-ROM disc of the corresponding size. However, technical developments for expanding the amount of the DVD-RAM disc have been extensively made, and it is certain that a DVD-RAM disc having a storage amount more than 4.7 GB on one surface will be available in the near future.
However, since an MPEG2 video file that can obtain high picture quality has a large data size, the currently available DVD-RAM disc (single-sided 2.6 GB disc or double-sided 5.2 GB disc) does not always have a sufficient recordable time (around 1 hour for 2.6 GB disc, around 2 hours for 5.2 GB disc).
Since the user can freely record data on the DVD-RAM disc, no information representing recording contents is generally printed on the disc surface. For the same reason, no information representing recording contents is generally printed on the package of the DVD-RAM disc.
To obtain the recording contents of the DVD-RAM disc at a glance at the disc appearance, the user must perform the following process. For example, the user grasps recording contents recorded on the DVD-RAM disc. The user creates information representing the recording contents of the DVD-RAM disc. The user writes the information representing the recording contents of the DVD-RAM disc on the disc surface. Alternatively, the user may add information representing the recording contents of the DVD-RAM disc to the disc package.
Since no information about recording contents is printed on the DVD-RAM disc, as described above, the user cannot obtain the recording contents of the optical disc at a glance at the disc appearance.
To obtain the recording contents of the optical disc at a glance at the appearance of the DVD-RAM disc, the user must perform predetermined processing for the disc.
The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and has as its object to provide the following information recording medium, information recording method, and information playback method.
(1) There is provided an information recording medium which can contribute to easy display of information about the recording contents of the information recording medium without any playback and cumbersome processing of the information recording medium (DVD-RAM disc).
(2) There are provided an information recording method and information playback method which can easily display information about the recording contents of an information recording medium without any playback and cumbersome processing of the information recording medium.
To achieve the above objects, the information recording medium, information recording method, and information playback method according to the present invention have the following arrangements.
(1) The information recording medium according to the present invention comprises a first area for storing picture data for forming a plurality of pictures, a second area which is included in the first area and stores control data of the picture data, and a third area which is included in the second area and stores specifying data for specifying a storage position of representative picture data for forming a representative picture in the picture data.
(2) The information recording method according to the present invention comprises the first step of playing back an information recording medium having a first area for storing picture data for forming a plurality of pictures, a second area which is included in the first area and stores control data of the picture data, and a third area which is included in the second area and stores specifying data for specifying a storage position of representative picture data for forming a representative picture in the picture data, and the second step of obtaining the representative picture data on the basis of the specifying data obtained by playback in the first step, and printing out the representative picture based on the obtained representative picture data.
(3) The information playback method according to the present invention comprises the first step of playing back an information recording medium having a first area for storing picture data for forming a plurality of pictures, a second area which is included in the first area and stores control data of the picture data, and a third area which is included in the second area and stores specifying data for specifying a storage position of representative picture data for forming a representative picture in the plurality of pictures, and the second step of obtaining the representative picture data on the basis of the specifying data obtained by playback in the first step, and displaying the picture based on the obtained representative picture data.